My new associate wasn’t any help. He was out of it. He looked like his head was in the clouds. Sadly though, it was on the ground, detached from the body. The same body it had been stuck to for many years. All the changes they went through together meant nothing now, the growth, the pain, and the familiarity gone in an instant. In a very violent manner.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where that thing is do you?” I asked the head, but only to hear my own voice. I’m not an animator. I’ll leave that job for the talented ladies.

I was ready to give up. I couldn’t search the valley forever. It would’ve been useless. But before I could throw in that proverbial towel, just like the head, the monster found me. What can I say, I’m a freak-occurrence magnet.

From below, black goo engulfed my feet. I couldn’t move my legs. They were trapped. I was trapped. The goo rose higher and higher, reaching the bottom of my pants and climbing steadily. My feet might have been stuck, but my mighty, Thor-like hammer of an arm was ready to pounce. I gathered my strength and cocked back my money-maker and sent it straight down to the beast below. Apparently this wasn’t a battle of strength. My hand sunk into the blackness and not a splash of tar escaped. I was in danger of my having my hand stuck as well. With every ounce of muscle I could muster, I pulled my hand free. Okay, time for a new plan.

It’s always been harder for me to draw upon elements other than fire. Fire is raw and powerful. It’s in my DNA. But water, a calm force, takes much more skill to master and for me way too much skill to master. I only dabbled in the water world. But from the ashes of desperation, men will rise.

As I calmed my breath the thick tar rose up my leg like the green ivy on the walls of my fortress. I steadied myself. I focused on the air around me. As dry as this place had become it still held H2O, and that was all I needed.

The moisture from the surrounding area came to me as I beckoned it to. As I had done before, I gathered my energy and waited for the right time to strike. With speed and force I struck again at the darkness that had ensnared me, but this time, as soon as I made contact with the beast I used the moisture and froze it. From my entry point through the whole of the being it became frozen, hardened by my magic and my basic understanding that when water gets to a certain temperature it freezes. I’m pretty smart.

It couldn’t struggle. It never had a chance. The deep freeze had spread, in moments I could’ve ice skated on the foul time capsule. For good measure, I stomped the frozen tar until the pieces were small enough to float away in the breeze. I had only one problem left—what the hell was I going to do with the head?